Sending arms to Ukraine is an option, Harper says
Statement made after talking to Germany’s Angela Merkel, who opposes military action
OTTAWA— Prime Minister Stephen Harper declined to rule out supplying lethal military aid to Ukraine if diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict with Russian-backed rebels in the eastern part of that country fail.
“We’ll look at all options,” Harper said, when asked if Canada would be in favour of a shift in aid to Ukraine from humanitarian aid to lethal defensive weapons.
“But obviously we will proceed extremely cautiously in partnership and collaboration with all our allies,” he added at a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Merkel, who stopped briefly in Ottawa Monday evening after a visit to Washington, is engaged in a furious round of shuttle diplomacy over Ukraine. Worried about the possibility of a proxy war in Ukraine between the West and Russian President Vladimir Putin, she is stressing the need to find a diplomatic solution to the deepening conflict.
“I hope we will be able to solve this conflict by diplomatic means because I think, by military means, it cannot be solved,” Merkel said.
Earlier at the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama weighed in on Ukraine after a meeting with Merkel. The U.S. has so far provided only non-lethal aid to Ukraine but Obama said Monday he might change his position if diplomacy fails to make headway in ending the fighting there.
“The possibility of lethal defensive weapons is one of those options that’s being examined,” Obama told Washington reporters.
While emphasizing the need to move cautiously, the Conservative government renewed its demands for Putin to halt the military action in east Ukraine by Russian-backed separatists.
Jason Kenney, who was appointed defence minister on Monday, said Canada must continue to confront the “outrageous Russian aggression” in east Ukraine.
Harper said both Canada and Germany recognize the territorial integrity of Ukraine and “we will never — no matter how long it takes, notwithstanding what methods are used — Canada will never accept the illegal occupation of Ukrainian territory by Russia.”
Harper said he and Merkel also discussed economic conditions, the continuing efforts to implement the Canada-European Union free-trade deal and the rise in Iraq and Syria of the Islamic State, which Harper termed a “jihadist monster.”